Ledger of Rust and Ruin (Version 3)

Intro

Steel gate rattling, sodium hum

Same window, three names, same sum

Verse

Grandfather's watch behind the glass, hands stopped at nine

Pawned it for rent, never came back to reclaim the time

My father's ring sat two shelves down from a trumpet, no case

Interest ticking louder than the clock on that same place

I walked in at seventeen with a chain round my throat

Clerk didn't blink, just weighed it, wrote the same old quote

Three generations feeding one drawer, one scale, one door

Every item's a promise nobody's kept before

Pre-Chorus

How much is a name worth when the name keeps coming back

Counting up the cost of everything we lack

Chorus

Ledger of rust and ruin, page after page the same

Ledger of rust and ruin, wearing my father's name

Every debt gets buried, every bill resigns

Ledger of rust and ruin, running through the lines

Verse

Tuesday the gate goes up, the regulars line the block

Trading gold for grocery money, watching the same clock

I bought back the ring at twice what it was worth

Held it like a headstone for the man who built this earth

The trumpet's still in the window, dust thick on the bell

Nobody's got the hundred, so it just sits and it swells

Pre-Chorus

How much is a name worth when the name keeps coming back

Counting up the cost of everything we lack

Chorus

Ledger of rust and ruin, page after page the same

Ledger of rust and ruin, wearing my father's name

Every debt gets buried, every bill resigns

Ledger of rust and ruin, running through the lines

Bridge

Not the gun, not the corner, just the drawer and the scale

The interest that outlives us, the debt that don't derail

I keep the receipt folded like a photograph

Proof that we were here, proof we did the math

Chorus

Ledger of rust and ruin, page after page the same

Ledger of rust and ruin, wearing my father's name

Every debt gets buried, every bill resigns

Ledger of rust and ruin, running through the lines

Outro

Same gate, same hour

Same name in the drawer

Ledger of rust and ruin

Still keeping score